England
have already qualified for Euro 2012. Put it in the books. Two games in, and
it's job done.

Wins against our two biggest rivals, including the toughest
match of the whole shebang in Switzerland,
and we are surely on our way to Poland
and/or Ukraine
in two summers' time. Where we will obviously suffer an early exit at the hands
of technically superior opposition.

A win on Tuesday against Montenegro (the only other team in
the group with any points) and it really will be a done deal.

With a couple of honourable exceptions, England are usually very efficient
qualifiers. Unlike in Euro

As Liverpool lurch from one crisis to another. It is tempting to blame the club's woes on Rafa Benitez, whose six-year reign ended in an acrimonious shambles.

Tempting, but wrong. It's time to debunk the ever-growing stockpile of myths about Benitez - a man who won the Champions League with the fifth best team in the Premier League, and came closer to winning the title than any Liverpool boss in two decades.

Myth one: He won the Champions League with Gerard Houllier's team

The argument here is that Benitez's crowning achievement, at the end of his first season, actually belonged to Houllier.

If you don't want to spend a second longer thinking about last night's England performance, that's understandable. But here's today at the World Cup anyway.

Friday's action

Germany 0-1 SerbiaIn its way, an even bigger shock than Spain's defeat to Switzerland. I mean, you just don't expect Germany to slip up. They certainly weren't helped by referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco, who harshly sent off striker Miroslav Klose and showed nine yellow cards in a deeply officious display. Milan Jovanovic opened the scoring shortly after Klose's dismissal, but Germany were handed a penalty after a Nemanja

On the bright side, a depressing loss is marginally better than a heartbreaking loss.

And at least England's atrocious defending lessened the significance of Frank Lampard's absurdly disallowed goal - fingers crossed it will not get as many replays as the Hand of God, Gazza's tears or David Seaman watching a Ronaldinho lob sail over his head.

But England's 4-1 capitulation against Germany provides more questions than answers. Let's try and make sense of it all.

Why can't our players perform at the World Cup like they do in the Premier League?This was the question posed repeatedly by BBC

About Alex Chick

Alex Chick is Managing Editor of Eurosport-Yahoo!. He has worked at Eurosport since 2006, during which time he has watched 2.9 million hours of hysterical rolling sports news, witnessed the demonisation of four England managers and even enjoyed the odd bit of sport.